My daughter loves to be in the kitchen but only wants to cook what she wants to cooks. So finding a recipe that satisfies her is difficult. But in addition to that I have noticed that I am not a great cooking teacher! I don't like kitchen messes, at all:(!!! Finding flour, batter, egg or anything else on the floor, walls and every single kitchen counter and cabinet drives me crazy. Finding a sink full of dishes at the end of a lesson is almost more than I can stand especially when half of them should never have gotten dirty in the first place. Yes, my daughter does do the dishes but not without attitude and complaining that makes me grit my teeth so hard I get a migraine. Okay, I admit it I do yell a bit during these lessons:( For that I am not proud of myself.
My daughter is an excellent reader but she has the hardest time following the simplest recipe, she puts the ingredients in the bowl in the wrong order (normally not a problem but sometimes it does ruin the dish and it has to start all over). I know part of this is her easily dis-tractable personality and her need to rush through everything just to be finished. This is something we continue to work on in her other lessons as well.
In addition to this my daughter doesn't seem to be able to stir anything longer than a minute, before complaining she is too tired, or the batter is too tough to mix:(. She also can't stir anything over the stove because it is too hot or the steam gets in her eyes. She also insists on sitting down for every single task given to her, sometimes I can accommodate but other time it is a safety issue and she needs to stand to complete a task for several minutes! It is getting so annoying I am seriously considering taking her to the doctor to see if their is something wrong with her legs, even tho I know her legs are just fine:).
I have come to the realization that while I am in the kitchen I am a perfectionist and have a certain way of doing things. Veering from a cooking procedure or recipe is very difficult for me. When you are teaching a young child you need to let go and ignore all the little spills and messes. I am trying to let go but it is proving to be a huge challenge for me. So as we continue our cooking lesson I need to dig deeper than I ever have to find the patience to teach this child to cook. I need to learn to appreciate her and her mess and allow her to learn at her pace and in her own unique way.
Honestly, I am not sure I am going to survive it!
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